Old to New: Drier Lint to Campfire Starters

In addition to making sure that we have the abovementioned necessities, we also need to make sure that we bring along a friend who is capable of building and starting a camp fire, as neither my husband nor I seem to be capable of it.  Left to our own devices, we’d be eating a lot of cold, un-melted s’mores.

Not this year!  I recently found instructions on the website, Family Camping for making your own campfire starters out of egg cartons, drier lint, and candle wax - three household items we are practically swimming in.  Here’s how you do it:

1. Stuff each egg section of the carton with drier lint. (The kids can do this part!)
2. Seal over with melted candle wax.  (The adult can do this part!)
3. Let wax cool and harden.
4. When starting a campfire, tear off 4 eggs, and place around your logs and kindling and light.

We are camping with friends as I write this (Yes, I’m camping with WiFi). We made these starters last night with kids who are 5 and 8. The 5-year olds needed help with the candle drippings, but the 8-year-olds did the whole thing themselves. The campfire starters worked great. Within an hour after starting, we were dining on dining on hot, melty s’mores.

Here are few other ways to reduce waste while camping:

• Limit waste by not using paper cups, forks and napkins.  You are probably going to be hand-washing pots or pans, anyway.  A few more forks and plates won’t be so bad.
• Use non-toxic biodegradable cleaners and personal care products. Don’t do your dishes with toxic dish soap and dump the water polluted with chemicals onto the ground.
• Use biodegradable earth friendly toilet paper and use it sparingly.
• If you’re leaving the camp ground and can’t use something ask another camper if they would like to use it rather than throwing it away.
• You can even use cloth diapers while you camp with your wee’uns.  Follow these tips for some helpful how tos.